Tag Archives: birth control

Post navigation

Please join us Tuesday April 25 at noon (California Time) to #pray for the safety, protection and freedom of America’s wild horses and burros.

Lobbyists are in Washington greasing palms to get what they want: slaughter, killing, pesticides for birth control and sterilization for extinction. This is not what the public wants. We love our wild horses and burros. We want them protected and forever free.

There is a lot going on behind the scenes now in Washington. This petition is making an impact. It’s time for us to let more people know about the fake inventory before more roundups, experiments, sales, etc. are allowed to destroy the last wild herds in America.

The clock is ticking. Oregon State University isn’t stopping. They are going ahead with their Nazi-like population control experiments on wild mares and a lot of them are pregnant! The experiments were encouraged by a bunch of sick pro-slaughter, pro-cattle activists that work in darkness to bring the “final solutions” to America’s underpopulated wild horses and burros. These people have no soul. They have no empathy for the suffering these horrible experiments will inflict on WILD horses . . . wild animals . . . wildlife . . . that the law was supposed to protect.

Take action right now and fill out this Animal Welfare Complaint: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalwelfare/complaint-form. Mention that the procedures used to sterilize wild horses in the experiments at Oregon State University and elsewhere are cruel. Let them know that wild horses are underpopulated and the basis for these heinous experiments is false. Underpopulated wild horses and burros in America don’t need population control or birth control.

America’s wild horses and burros need your help to live and survive on public land set aside for them in 1971–the public sanctuary that is open 24/7 at no charge. The wild ones need YOU to go to your elected officials’ home offices and push for their protection.

Please also send an email to your congressman/woman and your 2 senators. Their contact information is here: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ Short handwritten letters have the most impact as elected officials see them representing the opinion of 1000 voters.

Ignore anyone who says birth control is a tool in the stupid toolbox. Who’s toolbox are they talking about?

Ignore the spin doctors claiming they are overpopulated. It’s a lie.

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BoLM) claim there are 67,000 wild horses and burros combined in all western states is based on no more than an inflated guess. The BoLM have no headcount and no evidence according to the National Academy of Sciences. Even if there were 67,000 wild horses and burros left in the wild that would be too few to survive serious changes in climate, disease and environmental disaster. Do you want to see our majestic symbols of freedom and the American spirit become extinct forever? No you don’t, so take action. Your voice counts.

Don’t get distracted from the facts:

America’s wild horses and burros are being wiped off public land because greedy people and corporations with no conscious want to exploit the wild ones’ territory for profit–big profit. These people who are out for big money need to find the win-win, respect the environment and learn to work with–not annihilate–the last free roaming wild horses and burros. After all, wild horses prevent wildfires that could hurt their money making projects (oil and gas wells, solar energy zones, mining, etc.) These people should realize cattle will never roam like wild horses do and therefore cannot replace the wild herds for fire prevention.

Tell your friends, family, co-workers and neighbors what’s going on and tune into our website daily for updates on the fight to save America’s wild horses! www.ProtectMustangs.org There are a lot of ways you can help by using your voice right from your computer. If we all don’t do something now then hundreds of wild horses will be cruelly carved up in Nazi-like population control experiments to rid the land of wild horses. Our beloved wild ones have been wrongfully labelled “pests” in the Pesticide PZP EPA application. Also based on the overpopulation lie, thousands of wild horses could end up at slaughter soon if they are not all accounted for and placed in safe homes.

Your elected officials need to be contacted regularly by email, handwritten letters and in meetings to stop the abuse against wild horses and keep them living in real freedom. . . in the wild.

It’s time to send an email requesting an appointment to get your elected officials involved in protecting America’s iconic wild horses and burros. Yes really protect them–not forcibly drug them with Pesticide PZP or sterilize them.

Do you realize YOUR voices in government have been fed a bunch of lies based on a false premise from other elected officials, lobbyists and traitor “advocates” as well? Follow the money . . . Then move beyond that to real “solutions” to protect real freedom. Make your voice heard.

Hundreds of pregnant mares were moved Friday January 22, 2016 from Palomino Valley Center (PVC) outside of Reno to the closed door facility in Fallon called Broken Arrow aka Indian Lakes.

Does BLM intend on using the pregnant mares from Beatys Butte in the horrible Nazi-type sterilization experiments in Oregon? These pregnant mares and members of their herd seem to have been rounded up because Country Natural Beef, a supplier of Whole Food Market, was pushing for the roundup. Do they want the federally protected wild horses gone so they can use the public grazing land for beef?

Protect Mustangs officially requests the mares from Beatys Butte and all the mares at the Fallon facility be put up for adoption–not experimented on!

STOP the cruelty now! These are America’s icons of freedom.

Sterilization experiments are cruel and with no merit

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) overpopulation claims are fraudulent and any action such as experimentation for population control, fertility control, or other actions taken that are based on fraudulent information is wrongful. There are no “excess” wild horses on public land. Roundups have been based on fraudulent data. Read more about that here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8551

Americans must not allow tax dollars to fund experiments reminiscent of Dr. Joseph Mengele. The rights of American wild horses are being violated. Pregnant mares especially must never be used in sterilization experiments!

There are no accurate head counts of wild horse populations, many herd management areas have no wild horses left on them, and the BLM’s horrible customer service and poor marketing are the reason wild horse adoption has dropped. It’s as if the BLM wants their adoption program to fail.

Any and all experimentation based on the overpopulation myth must be stopped!

The BLM is proposing to conduct three research experiments “investigating the safety and effectiveness” of three separate methods of surgical sterilization of wild horse mares. The three proposed methods include ovariectomy via colpotomy (in photo above), tubal ligation and hysteroscopically-guided laser ablation of the oviduct papilla. The proposed studies would be conducted under financial assistance agreements with Oregon State University (OSU), with OSU staff serving as the principal investigators of the research. The three experiments combined would involve approximately 225 wild horse mares previously rounded up and removed from BLM Herd Management Areas (HMA). All three studies would be conducted at Oregon’s Wild Horse Corral Facility in Hines, Oregon and would be planned to begin in February 2016 with an estimated completion date of September 2020. This environmental assessment (EA) is a site-specific analysis of the potential impacts of the proposed action.

You are encouraged to write in your own words to oppose the wild horse sterilization experiment proposed on innocent wild mares. The deadline is February 3rd:

BLM’s allegations of overpopulation are fraudulent based on false data. They don’t even account for the correct mortality rates in the wild.

Predators should not be killed off and if there are none left then they need to be reintroduced for the thriving natural ecological balance.

Wild horses are a return-native species that help reduce catastrophic wildfires and create biodiversity. We need the herds to reverse desertification.

The BLM is creating a false overpopulation crisis to cash in on wild horses as laboratory animals for fertility control experiments while reducing the herds to nonviable levels.

GonaCon™, PZP, SpayVac® are all pesticides that classify wild horses erroneously as pests–ultimately sterilize them and are not needed because wild horses are underpopulated. There are no “excess” wild horses.

Send your elected officials a handwritten letter and make an appointment to go in to see them.

Please contact your elected officials and politely request they take immediate action on your behalf to stop the experiments on wild horses. You can find the contact information for your elected officials here: http://www.contactingthecongress.org

Unfortunately, the secret mandate to turn our public lands into vast oil, gas and coal fields–interspersed with millions of cattle under Bush–Cheney has continued unabated under Obama with geothermal fields, plus solar and wind farms being added to the mix of revenue generating initiatives, many on lands reserved by law for primary use by wild horses and burros.

Even as their herds diminish under constant assault by all of these special interests on public lands, wild horses continue to be scapegoats for degradation of public lands due to overpopulation, by the BLM which over-counts then by at least 200% while greatly exaggerating their rate of population increase–based on optimal conditions and zero mortality.

BLM’s solution to this fabricated overpopulation explosion of wild horses and burros has been massive roundups which are now being replaced by large-scale birth control with PZP (porcine zone pellucida) which results in sterilization after multiple applications. While their tactics have grown more sophisticated, BLM’s overall management program is much the same: Management for Extinction–only slower and less visible than before. Many herds have achieved balanced population levels with little or no management but today all the $$ is on fertility control, short-term and sterilization, long-term–not on natural population control, because this won’t eradicate the herds as ordained by the power brokers in DV. Alas if we don’t wake up, expose and oppose the lies and subterfuge re: the widespread use of PZP soon, our iconic native wild horses may join blue and bowhead whales in the waiting line for extinction–sooner than later.

Carl Mrozek’s nature clips are seen often on CBS Sunday Morning News. He is currently making a documentary on Wild Burros.

Don’t let pesticides like Gonacon™, PZP or SpayVac® manage native wild horses to extinction. The Spin Dr.’s and some ignorant horse advocates are pushing fertility control on underpopulated wild horses. Know the truth and expose those spewing the spin.

John Cox: Brett, you’re a retired biologist, previously with the NSA for how many years?

Brett Hass: 46 long years John. We met in Vietnam, when we a lot younger my friend (smiles). We were doing wildlife and vegetation studies in your AO (area of operations). That was my first assignment with the NSA, as a matter of fact.

John Cox: Let’s cut through all of that. What do you think of Gonacon™ and some of the other fertility controls BLM is using?

Brett Hass: As usual, and as government agencies do and BLM and DOI are extremely guilty, they pretend that science guides its wild horse and burro management strategies. So the agencies involved go forth and resolve issues, supposedly, with experimental drugs–in this case GonaCon™. The question is, in reality, does it resolve anything at all, or is it simply to further experimentations with this drug and the wild horses the most expendable of situations currently?

The problem is very obvious, with the first-time use of an experimental drug, they act like children with a new toy–but this toy is extremely dangerous, to not only the horses and actually lead them to extinction, but the environmental consequences are apparently neglected entirely? (shakes his head negatively). . .

But let’s get real, the very absence of science contradicts any time of sound reasoning for its use whatsoever. So once again we have a government agency, using a Nazi-Type experimental fertility drug on horses and other wildlife–without knowing, or even acknowledging for that matter, what the long-term consequences are–or in perception–the problems that will arise in its actual use.

There is no resolution, as I reviewed the population situation and see first hand there is no over-population if wild horses just within the BLM numbers alone; but livestock, that is a completely different matter, in reality.

John Cox: In your appraisal of the information you’ve read, would you, as a tenured Wildlife Biologist for over 50 years, use this drug?

Brett Hass: Absolutely not! There is no pertinent reasoning to use it right now and especially on wild horses or much of anything else for that matter. Our wildlife and environment is simply too important to be so frivolous with such activity, especially an unknown situation, as fertility drugs used in our natural environment. But as you say, ignorance is quite something, and our government seems to portray ignorance quite well, and frankly the only situation they seem to be competent to accomplish.

Much more on this discussion with Brett Hass later . . .

Below is the original PZP Pesticide Fact Sheet before HSUS seems to have lobbied the EPA to make changes to the chemical class. It’s still only approved as a pesticide to manage pests. PZP is made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries mixed with modified freund’s complete adjuvant.

Have you read about the Gonacon™ Experiment on the Water Canyon herd and the UNLUCKY 11 orphans? It all started as a PZP proposal and went down the slippery slope. . . Read about it here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8488

1.) I object to using my tax dollars to experiment on, forcibly drug with PZP and / or sterilize America’s wild horses.

2.) I do not want federally protected wild horses to be used for a research experiment using radio collars, devices in tails and spaying America’s federally protected wild mares. Sterilization is a form of harassing wild horses and against the law.

3.) The wild horses found in the White Mountain and Little Colorado HMA’s are not excess according to the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. There is only 1 wild horse per 6,000 acres in White Mountain. The BLM fraudulently inflates population growth (http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8551) and never performs a real headcount.

4.) I support natural selection and I am against fertility control of any kind because wild horses deserve to live on public land set aside principally but not exclusively for their use. Allowing more than 50 to 1 units of livestock to wild horses is unfair and goes against the 1971 wild horse protection act.

5.) Fertility control, such as with PZP and spaying, will destroy the herd’s genetic viability, wreck havoc on their behavior and social structure so therefore I am against it.

6.) I want to be able to come to Wyoming to see and photograph the White Mountain and Little Colorado wild horse bands with foals exhibiting natural behaviors–without radio collars and other devices–and definitely not sterilized.

7.) PZP sterilizes after multiple use and I do not want these wild horses sterilized.

Ms. Wilder is disinformed. PZP does not “cause eggs to reject sperm.” That hypothesis has been disproved. PZP is a registered pesticide whose mechanism-of-action is to cause auto-immune disease. PZP tricks the immune system into producing antibodies that target and attack the ovaries. PZP’s antibodies cause the mare to suffer ovarian dystrophy, oophoritis (inflammation of the ovaries), ovarian cysts, destruction of oocytes in growing follicles, and depletion of resting follicles. Not surprisingly, estrogen levels drop markedly as the ovaries are slowly destroyed. But PZP’s adverse effects are not limited to the individual animal. As a recent study — which included the Little Book Cliffs, Colorado herd and the McCullough Peaks, Wyoming herd — found, PZP extends the birthing season to nearly year-round. Out-of-season births put the life of the foals and the mares at risk. Further, the same study disclosed that the pesticide causes a delay lasting 411.3 days (1.13 years) per each year-of-treatment before mares recover their fertility after suspension of PZP. However, some mares never recover — they are left permanently sterile, and quickly too. Indeed, yet another study found that sterility could occur in some mares from just three years of PZP injections or from just one treatment if the pesticide were given to a filly before she reached puberty. Because PZP messes with the immune system, it ironically works “best” — sterilizes faster — if the mare has a strong immune system. But, conversely, PZP may not work at all in mares whose immune function is weak or depressed. So, the pesticide discriminates against the very horses that Nature has best equipped for survival against disease while favoring and selecting for the immuno-compromised. Worse yet, tests performed via radioimmunoassay indicated that PZP antibodies are transferred from mother to young via the placenta and milk. The transferred antibodies cross-react with and bind to the zonae pellucidae of female offspring, as demonstrated by immunofluorescent techniques.

But there is no need for PZP or any other population-reduction measures. BLM’s wild-horse overpopulation “data” is a fraud. Reviews of BLM’s year-to-year growth-estimates for various herds disclosed biologically-impossible growth-rates. For instance, just recently in Oregon, BLM claimed that the famous Kiger herd’s population grew from 21 horses to 156 horses in just four years — an increase of 643%. Stealthily inserting bogus birth-rates into the data, then wrongly equating the birth-rate with the population growth-rate, and failing to factor in the mortality-rate — that is how BLM creates the false impression of a population-explosion. Another ruse BLM employs is restricting maximum herd-size below minimum-viable herd-size. Then, whenever a herd is made to appear — via false figures — to exceed the arbitrary management level, BLM screams “excess!” and declares an immediate need for mass-removals and sterilizations. It should be noted that more than 70% of the herds are “managed” below minimum-viable size, including Spring Creek Basin.

We are updating this page so check back for more information as the scandal unfolds. Updates are being posted towards the bottom.

Save the young victims of the cruel experiment!

Wild foals captured from the Water Canyon portion of the Antelope Herd Management Area in eastern Nevada are up for adoption. They are the victims of a roundup to EXPERIMENT on wild horses with GONACON™. Nine weanlings and two yearlings are being held together at the National Wild Horse and Burro Center at Palomino Valley, north of Reno, Nevada. They need to be saved now and hopefully in pairs because this is so painful for them to have lost their families!

The wild horses are available for walk-up adoption from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays. All of the horses have received vaccinations and their bloodwork is completed. Brand inspections will be performed and health certificates issued on all adopted horses.

For more information, contact Jeremy Wilhelm, BLM public contact person, at (775) 475-2222.

The GONACON™ EXPERIMENT is being humane-washed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and their partners. They are perpetrating the overpopulation myth when in truth America’s wild horses are underpopulated. In their experiment they are releasing only a fraction.

Nations says, “I wanted to mention also, that we did a quick online petition for about 6 days with American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign regarding this same proposal and we had over 19,000 people from all around the country and the world in favor of doing this pilot program.This just goes to show how badly people want a positive change in wild horse management!

Do people realize what they are signing and supporting when they sign petitions put out by the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign? Are they reading the whole document or just reading the first paragraph and clicking quickly to add their name?

Why did the BLM take the Spin Dr.’s push for fertility control and turn it into an EXPERIMENT with GONACON™? It’s a slippery slope when “advocates” partner up with BLM for fertility control . . . American herds are becoming nonviable and will be wiped out.

GONACON™ like PZP is an EPA restricted use pesticide (see photo below). The BLM and their supporters are experimenting on America’s wild horses because the Feds see them as PESTS and want to dispose of them slowly . . . They hope the public won’t realize what’s happening.

Now it’s clear that some alleged “wild horse advocates” pushing fertility control, like PZP and GONACON™, are helping BLM not wild horses.

Update 5:27 pm PST: Why is the BLM’s Project Coordinator (volunteer) of the GONACON™ EXPERIMENT and BLM RAC member now raising money for her alleged Angels Acres Rescue to adopt the “Lucky 11” as she calls them? Yes she is calling the victims of this horrible GONACON™ EXPERIMENT and roundup “Lucky”.

Ask yourself if this:

Why didn’t the well funded wild horse preservation groups fight in court to stop the Water Canyon roundup?

Was this just another opportunity to get more donor data by sending out an online petition but do nothing to stop the roundup?

Is it because they are in with BLM, want more names on their email lists to push for fertility control?

November 08, 2015 5:45 am • LARRY HYSLOPA research project north of Ely will look at maintaining a stable wild horse population using a contraceptive. The goal is to treat mares with Gonacon, a commercial contraceptive, and then watch them over several years to make sure the project mares do not produce foals.

Jeanne Nations is a volunteer project coordinator who lives in the area, frequently visits the horses and knows most by sight. She will handle the on-site adoptions and help Ben Noyes, in charge of the project, and the Wild Horse Specialist in the BLM Ely District Office. Jeanne said if this research is successful, she hopes it could help other areas provide a more humane way to keep wild horse populations under control.

The Northeastern Nevada Resource Advisory Council recently visited the project site, after submitting a letter to the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program supporting Jeanne’s project.

The research site is north of Ely, on a narrow strip of public land 12-15 miles long between U.S. Highway 93 and the Schell Creek Range. A fairly isolated group of 66 wild horses currently live in this part of the Antelope Herd Management Area, which has 803 wild horses with an Appropriate Management Level of 324. The nearest other wild horses to this project area are over the mountains to the east.

Trapping has begun and Ben has gathered 35 horses so far. All the rest of the area horses will be trapped this fall. Ben feels he can capture all the area horses using water and bait trapping but will use other techniques if needed.

While the last few members of the Council were visiting the trap site, seven horses came into the trap to eat hay and drink water, showing they are quite comfortable with the trap.

About 30 horses will be part of the project, with the rest removed from the area. It is hoped on-site adoptions will take most of the removed horses but any remaining will be taken to holding areas. People interested in adoption can email Jeanne at jnphotography@hughes.net.

The project horses kept on the site will consist of 15 stallions and 15 mares, having an assortment of ages. After capture, mares will be treated with Gonacon and freeze branded. DNA samples will be collected from all horses. The problem then is the mares must receive a booster 30 days later, so all mares and some of the stallions will be kept in holding pens. After the 30 days, the horses will be released back into their home range. Ben feels the horses should have no problem re-habituating to their open range after a month of daily hay and abundant water.

Ben and Jeanne will keep an eye on the mares and watch them for pregnancies. The mares will need to be gathered again in two years to receive another booster.

There is a good chance the project mares are now pregnant and will produce foals the first year. However, these treatments should keep the mares from becoming pregnant again during the length of the project. After the project ends, it is hoped the mares will then become pregnant. Other horses may cross the mountains to join this group but they will not throw off the research since only the branded mares will be watched.

To the Office of the Inspector General at the United States Department of Interior

Dear Sirs,

We officially request a full investigation into the management of wild horses and land use planning 6 years before the roundup, the roundup itself, feeding, veterinary care and killing of the 28 Cold Creek wild horses who had become skinny.

Why didn’t the BLM help these federally protected wild horses get the forage they needed earlier?

Why didn’t the BLM move the native wild horses up to areas with more forage?

Why aren’t the Cold Creek wild horses getting their fair share of the land that is for their principal but not exclusive use according to the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse & Burro Protection Act?

Why is the agency appointed “appropriate management level” (AML) for wild horses so low when a genetically viable herd needs more members?

Why is the BLM limiting access to the public to bare witness to this cruel roundup?

Was euthanasia chosen for convenience and the bottom line, pure and simple?

Did they look at the feed and labor involved vs adoptability and take the cheap and easy way out?

Rescues and members of the public would have helped bring the Cold Creek wild horses back to health if manpower was an issue. Adoption would have been simple once they healed because people know about them and cherish them.

Tourists from around the world, visiting Las Vegas, love the wild horses of the American West.

The BLM continues to roundup more beloved Cold Creek wild horses and we pray they will not kill any more but nurse them back to health.

The public is outraged.

We thank you for investigating into the wrongdoings surrounding the management, roundup and killing of 28 Cold Creek wild horses, provide transparency and shine the light of truth.

The issue underpinning the use of PZP and the continuing cycle of removals of wild horses from the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range is: Whether there are excess wild horses. No, there aren’t. BLM creates the illusion of an overpopulation by administratively setting the maximum herd-size below minimum-viable population. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature determined that, if a herd were managed carefully per a stud-book, it could sustain itself genetically at a minimum of 500 individuals. Compare that number to BLM’s maximum: 120.

In fact, according to the latest genetic analysis, the Pryor Mountain herd is evidencing “a general trend for a decline in variations levels of the herd.” The recommendation was to “increase population size.” Yet, BLM stubbornly insists on its own failed approach of artificially limiting herd-size, declaring that it disagrees with the scientific “interpretation.”

But can the range accommodate more horses? Yes. By way of comparison, BLM allots 38 acres per cow or calf when setting the stocking-rate for livestock grazing. Thus, the 33,187 acres that compose the Pryor Mountain habitat can support 500 to 873 horses. When the WHR is restored to its original configuration, 44,920 acres, the high-bound can be increased to 1,182.

As for PZP, numerous independent studies have disproved the old theory that PZP merely blocks sperm attachment. In fact, PZP’s mechanism of action is to alter ovarian function, causing inflammation of the ovaries and cyst formation. PZP provokes an auto-immune response, wherein the pig-ovary-derived PZP antibodies attack the mares’ ovaries, resulting in dystrophy of those reproductive organs. Despite being hyped as a non-hormonal contraceptive, PZP causes “markedly depressed oestrogen secretion” in mares treated for just three consecutive years. The latter finding was disclosed by Dr. Kirkpatrick himself 23 years ago. PZP-use is associated with stillbirths, altered ovarian structure and cyclicity, interference with normal ovarian function, permanent ovarian damage, prolonged breeding season, and unusually-late birthing dates. A particularly troubling finding suggests that PZP can be selective against a certain genotype in a population.

PZP is touted as reversible; however, a recent study warned that just three years of treatment, or administration of the first PZP injection before puberty, may trigger infertility in some mares. Thus, only two PZP injections could be viewed as relatively safe, but it appears that even one injection is risky. The researchers warned that inducing sterility may have unintended consequences on population dynamics by, ironically, increasing longevity while eliminating the mares’ ability to contribute genetically.

Most pertinent to the Pryor Mountain herd is a longitudinal study on three herds treated with PZP — Little Book Cliffs, McCullough Peaks, and … Pryor Mountain. The researchers found that the birthing season lasted nearly year-round: 341 days. Out-of-season births put the life of the foals and the mares at risk. That same longitudinal study found that, following suspension of PZP injections, there was a delay in the mares’ recovery of fertility that lasted 411.3 days (1.13 years) per each year of PZP treatment. Thus, mares injected for four consecutive years (per BLM’s “prescription”) would be expected to take 1,645.2 days (4.51 years) to regain reproductive capacity. If disaster were to befall the Pryor Mountain horses, even if PZP were stopped immediately, it would take years for the herd to recover, if ever.

PZP has neither stopped nor slowed the roundups. Only lack of holding space has done that. Even the Pryor Mountain herd, injected for decades with PZP, is facing removals again this summer (per the usual three-year cycle) in addition to an intensified PZP “prescription” to be administered per an “equal opportunity program” eerily similar to Communist-China’s one-child policy. What’s ironic is that, for all the interference, BLM has achieved basically the same — or worse — record as has been attained the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros. ISPMB complies with the “hands-off” minimum-feasible management approach stipulated by the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. ISPMB’s two wild herds grew 8.73 and 5.08 percent, respectively, without PZP and without removals. Pryor Mountain’s most recent report — reflecting management with PZP and with removals — grew by 8.26 percent.

BLM needs to get out of the way of Nature. Let the Pryor Mountain herd find its own appropriate population level.

(Note: Beware of petitions pushing PZP. Be sure to read everything you sign these days especially the fine print!)